Sunday, April 25, 2010

Albert Frederick Morris, born in Birmingham, UK in 1917 and known as Bert, married Eva Elizabeth Nevin (1917-2008), grand daughter of photographer Thomas and Elizabeth Nevin, in Melbourne, August 1935.

Bert and Eva's flight from Hobart just weeks before their marriage was an elopement so worrying to Eva's parents Albert and Emily Nevin that they inserted this notice "MISSING GIRL" in The Mercury, June 24, 1935:

TRANSCRIPT

MISSING GIRL

Eva Elizabeth Nevin, aged nearly 18, has been reported missing from her home, 23 Newdegate Street, North Hobart since Saturday evening. She is 5ft 5in. high, and is well built. She has dark eyes and complexion, and short curly dark hair. It is thought she may be wearing a black velvet dress, with patent leather shoes, and light stockings.

Three weeks later, on August 17, 1935, Eva and Bert married in East Melbourne. Bert was the only son of Mr and Mrs B. Morris, of Service Street, Hobart.

Monday, April 19, 2010

On February 2, 1872 Thomas J. Nevin placed an advertisement in The Mercury informing the public and visitors (tourists) that his photographs, taken on a Colonists' Trip down the River Derwent to Adventure Bay on the eastern side of Bruny Island, were ready and for sale.

Three extant photographs of the trip are held at the State Library of Tasmania, and although included in The [Samuel] Clifford Album and unattributed, each of the images below clearly depicts visitors to the landscape and was intended to provide a record of this 1872 trip. It was common practice to include a photographer on tours which promoted Tasmania's heritage. Commercial photographer H.H. Baily similarly recorded a group of visitors on a boat trip to Port Arthur in 1876 (Mercury 28 July 1876).

Samuel Clifford was a partner and lifelong friend who reprinted Nevin's commercial photographs on request from 1877 once Nevin became a full-time civil servant working with police in the prisons and courts as a photographer, while also keeper of the Hobart Town Hall (1876-1880; 1881-1886).. These photographs and numerous others at the State Library of Tasmania which are assumed to be by Clifford are in fact stereographs and cartes-de-visite taken by Nevin which Clifford reprinted since Nevin's civil service subsequently precluded commercial activity if not advantage.

HERITAGE APPEAL
Abel Tasman attempted an unsuccessul entry to the bay during a storm in 1642, Captain Tobias Furneaux named it after his ship HMS Adventure in March 1773, after being separated from Captain James Cook during his second voyage in HMS Resolution in search of Terra Australis Incognita. It was later used as an anchorage by James Cook (HMS Resolution 1777), William Bligh (HMS Bounty 1788 and 1792 HMS Providence), Bruni d'Entrecasteaux (Recherché 1792 & 1792) and Nicolas Baudin (Géograph 1802). Matthew Flinders tried to enter the bay (Norfolk 1798). During the early 1800s it was the site of a whaling station, and during the 19th and 20th century it was used by the timber industry (Source: Wikipedia).

TRANSCRIPT

THE TRIP DOWN THE RIVER.- A photograph of the "Colonists' Trip" has been very well taken by Mr. Nevin, which will be of special interest to those who took part, and will probably like to secure this remembrance of so memorable event.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Small businesses in Tasmania were affected by an economic downturn in 1872, precipitated by excessive costs involved in railway construction, a decline in population, and corruption and nepotism within government. Photographers such as Cherry and Spurling were forced to the brink of bankruptcy. Others offered a reduction in prices "to suit the times" as Thomas Nevin put it, in this advertisement in The Mercury on 1st February, 1873:

From The Mercury, 1st February 1873
TRANSCRIPT

PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAITS
_________

T. J. NEVIN

PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTIST,

Returns his sincere thanks to his friends and the public for past favours, and having made a considerable Reduction in his Prices to suit the times, he solicits a continuance of their patronage, and invites attention to his circulars, showing particulars of the small cost for a first-class faithful Likeness.

140 ELIZABETH-STREET

The colonial government offered contracts by tender to small businesses for the provision of goods and services to offset hard times. Personal friendships, mutual business support and Lodge affiliations ensured priority and preference, and in Nevin's case, his family solicitor, Attorney-General W.R. Giblin, and his Loyal United Brothers membership played a key role in the offer to provide the Municipal and Territorial Police, and the Prisons Department with identification photographs of convicted criminals. "A first-class faithful likeness" is exactly what the police wanted of the prisoner and ex-convict population.

The date and wording of this advertisement, February 1873, heralds the change in Nevin's use of studio stamps, from the earlier commercial studio stamps which featured a kangaroo atop a leather belt encircling the words "T. Nevin, late A. Bock" to this studio stamp with the full initials "T.J. Nevin", the use of "photographic artist" as a vocational term, and the imprint of the government insiginia, the British Royal Arms featuring a lion and unicorn rampant that appeared on all Tasmanian government documents in the 19th century.

Above:
Verso of the carte below of prisoner James Mullins.

The Royal Arms insignia was in use by T.J. Nevin on his studio stamp by February 1873, which he continued to use until 1876 when appointed full-time to the civil service as police photographer and Town Hall Office-keeper responsible for the Police registers. From 1876-1880 his joint copyright on prisoner ID photographs ceased and so did the printing of his studio stamps on the verso of prisoner mugshots; the government owned his photographic work outright, and continued with the arrangement until 1886 while Nevin combined prison photography with duties as assistant bailiff serving warrants.

Notice of Mullens' sentence, two years hard labour,
The Mercury 16 July 1875.

Above: Prisoner James Mullins, also spelt Mullens aka Conlan or Leary, sentenced for larceny 1875 and absconding 1876 from Hobart Gaol, photo by Thomas Nevin (stamped verso), taken on 16 July 1875 at the Hobart Gaol. Held in the Mitchell Collection, State Library of NSW.

The warrants circulated to gaols and police stations in the event of an absconder contained not only the original photographic image taken on the prisoner's incarceration while awaiting the criminal sessions, but also a physical description with details of features and colouring no doubt supplied by Nevin from his face-to-face encounter with the man. Descriptions such as this one of prisoner Johnstone aka Bramall or Taylor were published in the weekly police gazettes, compiled at the Town Hall Municipal Police Office. This image of Johnstone aka Bramall and others (eg. Job Smith) was hand-coloured by Nevin in the interests of realism and probably displayed in his shop window at 140 Elizabeth St. to aid the public in recognition. Colouring the eyes, hair, cheeks and prison issue neckerchief underscored Nevin's claim to render "a first-class faithful likeness".See this article here.

In the same issue of The Mercury, 1st February 1873, Nevin's patron, client and friend Samuel Page, who operated the Royal Mail coach between Hobart and Launceston, and transported prisoners from Launceston and regional lockups to the Hobart Gaol on government commission, also advertised a reduction in the price of fares to the general public. Like Nevin, who provided Samuel Page with commercial photographs of his coach and horses for advertising (examples held at the QVMAG), a reduction in prices was affordable for both because of government commissions.

PAGE'S LINEOF
DAY AND NIGHT COACHES
____
FURTHER REDUCTION OF FARES
BY MAIL
____
On and after FRIDAY, 17th January
instant, the Fares will be REDUCED as under-
mentioned: -
DAY AND NIGHT COACHES [etc etc].

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In his own words ...

“I hope that you have not got it in your mind that I am implicated with the ghost“.The Mercury, 4 December 1880

"Defendant said that he was the father of a large number of children, and did not know which one was referred to. (Laughter.)"The Mercury, 11 August 1886

"Mr. Thos Nevin was under the impression that the police should be under stricter supervision."The Mercury, 19 July 1888.

Biography: Professional photographer Thomas James Nevin snr (1842-1923) produced large numbers of stereographs and cartes-de-visite within his commercial practice, and prisoner identification photographs on government contract. His career spanned nearly three decades, from the early 1860s to the late 1880s. He was one of the first photographers to work with the police in Australia, along with Charles Nettleton (Victoria) and Frazer Crawford (South Australia). His Tasmanian prisoner mugshots are among the earliest to survive in public collections, viz. the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston; the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart; the Tasmanian Heritage and Archives Office, Hobart; the Port Arthur Historic Site, Tasman Peninsula; the National Library of Australia, Canberra; and the Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Sydney. Thomas J. Nevin's stereographs and portraits are held in public and private collections in Australia, New Zealand, the USA, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Switzerland.

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Our Fourteenth Anniversary 2019

Fourteen years ago (before 2005 actually) we started blogging about Tasmanian photographer Thomas J. Nevin (1842-1923). We look forward to another two years at least as the project draws closer to completion. Contributions and donations are most welcome, and many thanks for your involvement.

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DISCLAIMER: We have not voluntarily contributed to any publication which supports the misattribution of Nevin's prisoner/convict photographs (300+ extant) to the non-photographer A.H. Boyd, nor do we condone any attempts by public institutions or private individuals to co-opt the work on these Nevin weblogs and associated sites to apply the misattribution.

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